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Cornwall city hall administration attempted Monday to show council — and the public — the uphill battle it is facing to reduce residential property taxes for the 2017 budget.

Financial services GM Tracey Bailey told council taxes from revenue it collects from homeowners would increase by 4.6 per cent if the budget was frozen for 2017.
Individually, the increase could be slightly less for many homeowners, if their property assessment were at or near the average.

For example, Bailey showed council a chart that showed the so-called average house assessment, of $161,897, would pay $57.74 more in taxes or 2.57 per cent.
This does not include any increases to inflation (wages, fuel, etc.) the city would tack on and at the discretion of city council.

Bailey made her presentation to council in light of the public’s consternation stemming from convoluted circumstances that has forced administration to present a draft budget that would ask homeowners to shoulder a bigger tax load.

Administration found itself in this predicament after it learned from the Municipal Property Assessment Corp. that commercial assessments were dropping $62 million, partially due to a decision across the province to lower assessments for big-box retailers.

The draft budget that takes into account inflationary pressures, presented earlier this month, suggests raising residential taxes by 4.57 per cent.
Under this inflationary scenario, the ‘average Cornwall home’ would pay $102.80 more next year.

Such an increase (council has yet to suggest cuts to the draft budget) would buck annual increases of around two per cent or less the last several years.
Coun. Denis Carr, the chair of the budget steering committee, sympathized with administration’s attempt this fall to present a budget that would try to address some infrastructure renewal without significant property tax increases.

“Administration was pretty proud of the budget document,” Carr said, referring to administration’s efforts before the property assessment rolls were revealed.
“A few days later they got (negative) news from MPAC. It changed the whole picture.”